Happy Easter!

We hope you had a nice Easter! Ours was nice. My family came down and spent the weekend with us. On Easter morning Brandon and I made breakfast for everyone. Then we gave Hadley her Easter baskets form us and grandma and grandpa Prisbrey. She got bubbles, teething tablets, and new hair things (if it ever grows in enough to use them). Grandma and Grandpa brought her some fun new bath toys and money for her bank. Then we went to church. We have the best calling, we teach the 5 and 6 year olds. I was so impressed with them. Usually during our lesson we hear the comments, "I'm bored" "Can we color now" and "What do you have for us today". I love the simple lessons in primary. They are on my level! But it was so great to teach the kids about our Savior and why we celebrate Easter.

Hadley got tagged!

Hadley's friend London tagged her. So here we go.
Here are 8 things about Hadley.

1- Hadley likes to dance. When she hears music she bounces and shows her moves!

2- Hadley has a pink puppy that she sleeps with! It is so soft and she loves to put it on her cheek.

3- Hadley loves to watch Regis and Kelly and Ellen. When they do their monologues she thinks they're talking to her. She has her eyes glued to the tv and will laugh when they do! She just loves people and kids. When we're around our friends kids she watches them and giggles so much!

4- Hadley can be sensitive. When she gets her feeling hurt she bows her head.

5- Hadley loves food! She's not picky. She'd eat everything we do if we'd let her.

6- She has this new cheesy smile. It is so funny! She smiles from ear to ear and squints!

7- She loves to be outside. She loves the wind and rain! She gets so excited if its windy and will laugh!

8- Hadley is a lover! She'll pat your back when you hug her and will give you kisses. (open mouth, suck on your cheek kisses! I love baby kisses)

Hadley tags Nate, Millie, Cooper, Hudson, Lauren, Taylor and Aaralyn!

Spring Break Baby!

Brandon took a few days off of work so we could enjoy his last spring break ever! Once a year we go to Mesquite with our friends. I know it sounds classy but it really is fun! Its the best cheap vacation ever! We go swim and lay out. EAT and do the spa and it is the best! So my mom came and met us in Mesquite and she took Hadley for a few days. What is sad is I really think Hadley likes her more than us! Which is nice in situations like these so we can leave her!


This is Britney and Travis. Brit and I went to hair school together. Trav was so mad at me for getting out waiter to take our picture! Its sad I'm totally turning into my mom and grandma with the camera! I use to hate it when they would take pictures of everything and now I do it.

Easter Pictures!

So yesterday I went and had her 9 month pictures done and the Easter ones too! She would not give them a smile no matter what crazy thing they would do! But as soon as I took off her dress and gave her that necklace she was workin it!

Wanted!

I know I can't complain to much about Hadley's sleeping. She's slept 8-9 hours a night since 4 months. (unless she got sick or we were out of town) But now she is 9 months and we're done getting up at 5:00 a.m. to feed her. So, I need some advice! I've tried the crying out thing and its not really working. We let her cry for over an hour today and it just wakes her up more and more. So we've been up since 6:30. Well her and Brandon have! PLEASE HELP US!!

9 Months!!

I can NOT believe Hadley is 9 months now! Its not suppose to go this fast! It makes me so sad but at the same time I love what she can do now! She is scooting and once in a while will do an actual crawl. She sticks out her tongue and will spit (Thanks Lanece!). She will not lay still for a full diaper change! And she is quick! Then once her diaper is on, she can undo it. She loves to get into our entertainment center and get Brandon's nintendo paddles out. She books it to the movies and gets out the DVD's. I know she is smarter than we give her credit for because I swear she knows that she is not suppose to get into the Ensigns and that is the only time she is quiet as she sneaks over there! She waves and puts blankets over her face to play peek-a-boo!


She found her bracelet!


She crawls underneath her saucer and puts the ball in there because it rolls all over!

The Girls!

Our good friends Kelly and Jenni are moving to Washington. So Jen and Ava came down for a few days before they leave. Ava is a doll and I had to put a picture of her on here! She is so giggly and smiley but every time I went to take a picture she would just stare at me!

Bling-Bling!

Well I finally did it! I got Hadder's ears pierced! It took 6 long months to talk Brandon into it and talks of getting him a new computer. It actually started when we talked about having kids. I never really thought it would be an issue and that people really freaked out about it. All of you who are not married I'd suggest bringing this issue up! It could be the deal breaker! Just kidding. My mom did mine when I was a baby and I don't remember them ever hurting me and I like it that way!
So here is how I justify it for all of you who don't agree with us. -She doesn't know she has ears yet! That way they can heal, stay clean and she won't touch them.-Hopefully no one will call her a boy anymore! (There are really stupid people out there! She'll have on a bow and people will still ask what our little guys' name is) -She's little so she won't remember this. I've been hearing all sorts of stories of girls who have to wait until they are older and it hurts so they end up just taking them out. Or like the lady who works with Brandon, her niece got hers done when she was nine and the first ear hurt so she wouldn't let them do the other one! For months she walked around with one earing! Thats more cruel than just doing them both when she's younger!!

Her is our "happy" before picture! I'll be honest, this is the part where I had some guilt! Thanks Kristine for being a good support to both of us!


This is right after they did it. I had everything waiting for her. A bottle, binky, a cookie, her marker she likes, and that stuffed dog they let her play with.

And this was after! She only cried for a minute and then she was laughing and being herself!

Valentines!

My cousin Jessi came and stayed with us for a few days and we had so much fun! Hadley loves her and always made sure Jess was looking at her! Hadley started doing this fake laugh, I love how she thinks she is so funny! Jessi was so sweet and for Valentines she took Haddie and let us have a date night!

Here is her Valentines from my mom. "Grammy" Its this cute book, a bib and her favorite cookies!

This is my cousin Jessi!

I'm so lazy lately, its so much easier just putting her in the sink rather than bending over and getting her in her bath. (When she gets in the big bath she goes all over the place and tries to roll all over and put her face in the water!) I love how she's just kicked back and enjoying her bath!

"Mama"

I know I already posted today but this is better than unpacking! Hadley started saying "Mama" this weekend!! She's been saying "Dada" for a while now but now she's onto bigger and better things! Oh and she's squints now when you get the camera out because she knows theres a flash! It cracks me up.

This is Hadley eating cookies with my mom. She couldn't stop giggling at her!


This looks like the flash is in her face but she's on the table and the light is above her! We're not blinding her! She makes this face when she sees the camera now!

Our Little Boy Is Growing Up!

For those of you who didn't know or even care, my little brother Kason (yes I said little) has decided to go on a mission! I'm so proud of him but to be honest I'm having a hard time with it cause we've been close all growing up. He got ordained an Elder this weekend. He is such a good kid. He always makes us laugh! And I'm just so proud of him cause he's done it all on his own and is working so hard! We've been teasing him that he'll get called to Mesquite or Idaho. At least then we could all afford to go and pick him up!

Riley-Bo-Biley!

Riley, Crew and Mama Jew (Ri's mom Julie) came down to visit! We had so much fun and got a lot of shopping done! Both babies didn't sleep as well that night. It was funny cause every time we had to make a bottle we'd both be in the kitchen making them together! Hadley once again made the moves on Crew. Its definitely Crew's turn to show how he feels!


I love this picture! Hadley is just gettin' comfy propping her leg on him!


Crew loved the pink crib!! They had fun with the mobile! Don't worry we didn't leave them in there together all night or unsupervised!

I'M TAGGED!!!

mY hUsBaNd....
What is his name? Brandon McDonald.
How long have you been together? Together 4 1/2 yrs. Married 3 1/2 yrs.
How long did you date? From the time we started dating until the time we were married was exactly 1 year.
How old his he? 27!
Who eats more? Sad, but me. He's embarrassed by this so if you ask him he says we eat the same.
Who said I love you first? Brandon! This is funny! He tried to say it once before it actually came out. He'd been down for the weekend in St. George and was leaving to go back to Salt Lake. He was acting kinda funny and wouldn't just say good bye. Finally he said, "Kiley" (which was weird because he usually calls me Ki.) "I love... spending time with you!" It was so funny! It worked out good because if he would've said it then I would've freaked out. But it prepared me for the real thing!
Who is taller? Brandon
Who can sing better? Brandon. (not by much, we both aren't singers)
Who is smarter? I wish I could say me but its definitely him! I'm street smart and he's book smart!!
Who does the laundry? We both can, but I usually do!
Who pays the bills? Both. He does the online ones and I do all the rest.
Who sleeps on the right side? He does. What ever side is closest to the door I make him sleep on.
Who mows the lawn? What lawn?
Who cooks dinner? Usually me but he is a good cook! Sometimes we find new recipes and make it together. Its fun!
Who drives? Brandon. This was a sore spot when we first got married. Whenever we went on a trip, exactly half way he'd stop and make me drive.
Who is more stubborn? We're both the same. I guess it depends on the subject.
Who kissed who first? Brandon did!
Who asked who out first? Brandon did!
Who proposed? Brandon did. He did it on my birthday. He put the ring in a clock box so when I opened it I thought it was kinda weird I was getting a clock. I started unwrapping it and he got too excited and took it and finished unwrapping it for me.
Who has more friends? I would say we are pretty equal there.
Who is more sensitive? 100% me. I tease him that he's dead inside! Thats one of his strong qualities is that he doesn't let things bother him.

I tag Holley, Erin and Kristine! And whoever else wants to do it!!!

I'm so mad at my Secretary!

So the other day, the most awesomest thing that could ever happen to anybody, happened to me. I have a dartboard up in my office for those moments when I need a break. I was taking a dart break yesterday and I threw a bulls-eye. I was pretty proud of myself. I thought, "There's no way lightning strikes twice in the same place," right? WRONG!!! I threw the next dart, and magic happened! The tip of the dart stuck into the flight of the previously mentioned bulls-eye dart (the "flight" is the wings of the dart for those of you who don't play). You don't believe me? I have proof! This is a picture I took from my cell phone:

Unfortunately the attorney that usually plays darts with me is out of town until Monday. So I decided that I was going to keep the darts in the board to prove to him how freaking amazing I am. And then the worst thing you could possible imagine happened! My secretary, I'll call her Clarice to protect her identity, came into my office to drop off a new case list. She then proceeds over to the dart board and before I could say anything, she pulls the darts out of the board!!! She says, "Do you mind if I try throwing a few?" I couldn't say anything because my throat was closing up from the anger. She basically ruined my life. I've calmed down now and at least I still have photographic evidence of my greatest life achievement. Whew! It feels good to get that out! That is all...

Sick of being sick!

There hasn't been much going on around here! Brandon and Hadley have both been sick. Hadley has been teething but now she has a horrible cough and cold! It makes me so sad. Is it bad that I love how cuddly she is though!?

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing lately.


This is what she does when her teeth are bothering her, she chews on her thumb. She loves to roll right up against the couch and put her feet in the cushions!


This is my little lamb helping me do laundry. Since she's been sick she gets mad if you leave her sight. She's really not mad in this picture. As soon as you take the tights off her head she laughs!



She won't crawl or even attempt getting on her knees. She just rolls everywhere! She loves going under her crib, she thinks its funny!

ChRiStMaS!

Christmas was so much fun this year! Its always great going home for Christmas! We got the best of both worlds since Brandon's cousin got married in St. George all his family was there too!

All morning Hadley kept looking at the tree and saying, "OOh!" She loved the paper and actually opened a present. She'd get mad if you took it away to hand her a new one so I just opened the rest and threw them to her!

This was Hadley's early Christmas present. We had to give it to her early because it wouldn't fit in our car to take it to St. George.

It took about ten years for Hadley to open this present!

This was Hadley's "I'm so excited" face.

Hadley got a Zebra from Grandma and Grandpa McDonald...

And she got a Choo Choo Train from Grandma and Grandpa Prisbrey!

Hadley's in Love!

I went to St. George for a few days last week. We got to see my friend Riley and her little man Crew. Well, Hadley made the moves on him already. We laid the babies by each other because Crew looks almost as big as Hadley and she kept rolling over to him and grabbing his hand! I hope this isn't a bad sign because its a little early!!

Santa!!

My mom and I took Hadley to see Santa! She was very interested in the big guy! She couldn't stop staring at him and trying to grab his beard. He kept holding her hand down. I was kinda bummed. I was hoping for a good picture of her tugging on his beard!!

I Have The Best Husband!!

I just wanted to let everyone know how much I love Brandon!! He is the greatest! He always puts others first! I haven't felt good all week and he's been busy with finals. The last few nights Hadley hasn't been sleeping good and he has gotten up with her every time and has let me sleep!!! He is the best daddy!!

Family Pictures

Over Thanksgiving weekend we got our family pictures taken in St. George. Hadley was definitely not in the mood for pictures!! Luckily we got a few good ones.

Here's Hadley after we got her to stop eating the leaves and grass. Instead she decided to suck on her fingers.


Here we all are with Kiley's family:


And here's Brandon holding Hadley. Notice that they both have the same amount of hair.

BABY!!!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. I also realize that my last posts have been freakin boring because they don't have any photos. I'm going to try to remedy this problem by making this post as freakin awesome as a fight between a Ninja and a Pirate!


Anyway, as you may have guessed from the title, Kiley and I had a baby this summer. Seeing a baby born sure makes me glad I don't have lady parts.... Now back to the story. We had a baby girl, and we named her Hadley Kae McDonald. She was born on June 2, 2007. She weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces, which was more than we though she would weigh because she was premature. She was 3 weeks early, but she was perfectly healthy so we were able to take her home after a day and a half in the hospital. I was so proud of Kiley.

This is a picture of Hadley at about a month old:


Here's another picture of her right after her blessing:

And now she's about 4 months old, and she's so big!


Since my last update, I went to work for a law firm here in Las Vegas during the summer. That was a kick-a$$ experience. We were really excited when the firm gave me an offer for employment to work full-time once I graduate and take the bar. I realize that this means we won't be able to move back to Utah for a while, but it does mean that my financial future is secure which is more important to me than moving back to the promised land. We're trying to recruit friends to come down to live in Vegas with us. You know how MONEY it is down here, so you should all come join us. We could party at the El Cortez all the time.

Now back to my job.. This is a picture of the building I work in.

It's not a very good picture, but you get the point. The building is big and shiny and I have a nice office with a big and shiny leather chair. Pretty much everything there is big and shiny.

Kiley and I don't have really big plans for the near future. Kiley is in retirement right now, which is nice because she can stay at home with the baby. Hadley is the cutest and best baby in the world. That's right, she's better and cuter than your babies and I can prove it.

I'll finish this off for now. Hopefully I'll start posting more frequently so you guys can keep up on the inner-workings of my mind. If you'd like to debate whether a Pirate or a Ninja would win in a fight, feel free to do so in the comments. That is all...

New Law Firm

For those of you that read my last posting you know that I was a bit torn between two job offers. I wasn't really torn… I knew which firm I wanted to go work for; however, I had already accepted an offer from the first firm that interviewed me. In a normal business setting it wouldn't be that big of a deal to accept an offer to work for a company and then call them back a bit later to turn them down if something better came along. Well, the legal world is a different beast when it comes to job interviews and offers and acceptance of offers. First, the legal world here in Las Vegas is very small, despite the fact that Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the country (if not the fastest) and holds a population of about 2 million. For some reason the number of lawyers in the city is not growing nearly as fast as the city.

    You might be wondering why this matters… Well, in such a small legal community, word gets around very quickly. If you do something stupid or screw over a law firm in Las Vegas and you plan on continuing to work in Las Vegas, chances are the other lawyers in Las Vegas will find out about it. So I didn't want to screw over the first firm that offered me the job by going back on my word if that was going to have big consequences to my reputation. The other problem with finding a job in the legal market is there is a set of rules or etiquette that is usually followed when it comes to job interviews and offers. I didn't know if what I was doing was going to be looked at as a serious faux pas or not.

    So, in the end, I decided to go with the second law firm. I just felt a lot better about it (plus they pay quite a bit more than the first firm). I called back the first firm to tell them that I couldn't work for them anymore. Luckily I just got the guy's answering machine. I'll do anything to avoid confrontation. I'll probably start work at the new law firm sometime around mid-May. I have finals coming up at the beginning of May and I'll be done pretty quickly because I only have 3 finals this semester. I'm going to try to plan some kind of vacation before I start work, but it might be tough with Kiley being 8 months pregnant. I don't have anything more to say, so that is all…

72.4% of My Problems are Solved

My life has greatly improved in the last week. Things got really crazy for a while because I was interviewing for a billion jobs, looking for a new place to live, and trying to keep up with my school work at the same time. There were quite a few more problems added to that, but I won't go into those.

You probably guess from the title of this posting that 72.4% of my problems got solved recently. I'll start off with the small news and lead into the big stuff. I just took my Federal Income Test final, and right now my butthole hurts. To start off, the test was on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. Who gives tests on a Friday night? I guess I shouldn't be complaining… I am in law school. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I passed that test and I'm just glad to have it over with.

The better news is that we finally found a place to live, so I don't have to worry about being homeless with a pregnant wife anymore. The place we found is really nice. It's a 2 bedroom condo/townhouse with a 1 car garage. We're only paying about $50 more per month for this new place than we're paying right now for a 1 bedroom apartment with no garage, so I'm happy about that. The only downside to this new place is that there is no pool. I've been grieving over this detail for the past week. We've been packing up all of our stuff and getting ready for the move, which will take place on Saturday. I really wish we had enough money to just buy our own place, but with the number of foreclosures increasing in Las Vegas, I think it's best to rent for a year and watch the housing prices drop like a hammer.

So now for the biggest news of the week: I finally got a job. You have no idea what a relief this is. Once again, I don't really want to be homeless with a pregnant wife, and getting a job is a good way to prevent that. I'll be working for a pretty large firm here in Las Vegas. They mostly focus on insurance defense. So when a personal injury lawyer decides to sue an insurance company, this law firm is there to protect them. I'll be getting paid really well, but I guess it's all relative. Compared to my pay at UPS, I feel like Christopher Walken. Anyway, the nice thing about this job is that I'll be able to work part time during my last year of school, and if they like my work, they'll hire me as an associate once I graduate and pass the bar. That does mean that we'll probably be staying in Las Vegas for a while unless something unforeseen happens in the next year.

So that is the update on my life. Kiley's doing really well. She cut back on her hours at work because she's had high blood pressure lately, and that's not so good for the pregnancy. Other than that, we're going to have to start buying all of the baby stuff now that we'll have an extra bedroom to put it all. It's going to be quite an adjustment spending money on somebody other than myself. It's a good excuse to buy a nicer camera and a camcorder though. So I'll still get to buy my toys even though the rest of our money will probably go into buying things for the kid.

I need to start including photos in these postings because I know it's always more interesting when there are pictures. I'll probably end up just adding them to these posts later when I'm not sitting in class. That is all…

More Comings and Goings in My Life

So, as usual, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Quite a bit has happened since then, but not much to write about. I am passed my half-way mark in law school, which means I have just over a year left to go before graduation. School has calmed down for me, since this semester I decided to only do 12 credits instead of 15. If I had decided to do 15 credits I would pretty much be forced to graduate early. I don't really have a reason to graduate early, so I just decided to take it easy this semester.

Kiley is still pregnant. She's now 25 weeks along. That means we have about 3 ½ months to go. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but I'm going to have to be. We were a bit worried last week after Kiley went to the doctor, because they said that her blood pressure was incredibly high. High blood pressure during pregnancy can be a sign of toxemia. I won't explain what toxemia is, but it's a condition that's about as bad as it sounds. The doctor said that if she gets toxemia, they will be forced to deliver the baby early. So that's not a good thing. Anyway, Kiley got some blood tests done and they determined that she doesn't have toxemia, but she still has to go see a high risk OB from now on.

Other than that little problem, we also have the added stress of finding a new place to live. Our lease is up on March 31^st, and we're currently living in a one bedroom apartment, so we have to move either way. My dad was actually looking into buying a house down here and we would just rent it from him. This was mostly for tax purposes, but it would work out nicely for us. However, with the housing market looking the way it does, we were cautioned not to buy in Las Vegas right now. Plus, I'm still looking for a summer job (more on that later) and we could possibly move after I graduate. So any house that my dad could buy would have to either appreciate in a year and a half, or at least keep from depreciating. So that was too risky for us. And now we're back to looking for a rental. Which sucks.

I was getting a bit worried about finding a job for this summer. Things are starting to actually look up for me. I got some interviews with several law firms here in Las Vegas. I got a call back to one of them, which is my first choice right now if I were to get an offer. I also have a law firm that is almost sure to offer me a job (I have some inside connections), but they probably don't pay as well as this other firm, so I've got a backup plan. It would be really nice to actually have a paying job. I've forgotten what it feels like to receive a paycheck. Plus, it would be a big relief to have an income since we don't know how much longer Kiley's going to keep working.

Anyway, I'll be posting again soon. Which means check back in about 3 months. That is all.

    

The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly of CES 2007

CES has come and gone this year and it has brought another set of memories. I went with Keltose again this year. I don't have much to say about the show itself: it was mostly a lot of the same stuff as last year. I was a bit disappointed in the amount of SWAG ("Stuff We All Get") that was handed out, as compared to last year. There was the usual pens and keychains with the logos of the companies on it: Divx, Toshiba, Xbox 360, etc. A new one this year was the yo-yo's handed out by Palm. I thought that was clever. I'd have to say the best unconditional SWAG (the stuff that you don't have to do anything to get) was from the Microsoft Zune lounge. They gave out cool bags with brown Zune T-shirts and Zune stickers.

As for the "conditional" SWAG, Sandisk came up short by giving out crappy backpacks, but only to people who got "passports" stamped at different spots in their booth. It wasn't worth it to me, so I didn't even bother. A bit farther down the lane was Creative who had the same hot booth babes as last year wearing their space age outfits. In order to get something from Creative, we had to get a card punched at two different areas after listening to a presentation about Creative's new products. I have to admit, Creative's new X-fi system was pretty cool. It basically takes mp3 quality audio and makes it sound a lot better. After getting your card punched you had to spin a Wheel of Fortune type thing and they gave you the prize that the wheel landed on. I won a Creative Coffee Mug, which doesn't do me a whole lot of good since I don't drink coffee. Keltose, the lucky bastard, won a Creative Zen V Plus mp3 player which is a whole other story on its own. You'll have to ask him about that...


There are only two other parts of CES that I find worth mentioning. First of all, Yahoo! was giving out Cold Stone ice cream, which was delicious. I got vanilla with strawberries. After getting our ice cream, we stopped by the Girls Gone Wild bus where they had some skanky girls playing fake volleyball (they also looked like they were underage, but I won't get into that).

Other than that, everything went as well as can be expected. Now I just have to get back to my normal life. School stars next tuesday I think and I'm not too excited to go back. It's been nice to have a month off. My wife is now 17 weeks pregnant and we find out on Monday whether it's a boy or a girl. I'll keep you updated on that. That is all for now...